#49 Devil's Arcade by Bruce Springsteen

Even when you win, you lose. Like paying twenty dollars in quarters to win at an arcade game where your prize is worth maybe fifty cents, war is a game that cannot be won. Whether that war is fought on foreign soil between soldiers or on the streets between young men caught in the game of drugs and survival, what is at risk is greater than anything that can be won. They are all pawns in a much larger game where there are no rules and no fair play.

Somebody will benefit, but not those who risk everything, not those who will experience the greatest loss. The chips are stacked against them. If they manage to save their bodies, a large part of who they are will not be saved. When all is said and done, for them only faith, or “something like faith” remains.

For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/DevilsArcade.html

#48 Dead Man Walkin’ by Bruce Springsteen

This is one of those songs that overwhelms me to write about. Springsteen’s gift for tapping into the dark recesses of another’s soul is rarely more evident than it is in this story.

“Between our dreams and actions lies this world” sums up beautifully the all too common tragic story of a life lost. A baby is born and dreams are built. His mother holds him and looks into his eyes seeing all the possibilities of his future. But no one is free to grow independent of the world’s cruel mysteries. The battle against internal and external demons sometimes leads to surrender. Shame, guilt, and fear take our inborn sense of our own divinity quickly shatters our belief in even our humanity.

These souls are dead long before they are in the ground. There is no love, no grace for the dead. Anything they do to harm themselves does not matter. They do not feel worth saving. They are their sins. They are their pain. They live life waiting for the day they can finally be free from the ghosts in their veins that have haunted them all their lives. They can only find some small sliver of hope that the grace they did not receive in life will embrace them in death.

For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/DeadManWalkin.html

#47 Darlington County by Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen playfully tells about a coming of age story. Two young friends, in the foolish overconfidence and naivety of youth take a stab at responsibility and “romance”. They don’t make much of a splash in the crowded city, so they think their luck will change in Darlington County. New places and new faces hold so much promise in their young eyes.

They check out the girls on the corner, hoping to make some kind of impression. Wayne skips out on work and disappears for a few days, no doubt drunk off of his newfound freedom. The game of life was bigger than he expected. It bites him in the ass and he winds up arrested.

The narrator, though, keeps working hard. He goes to work each day but keeps searching for some “little girl” to make a connection with. But he begins to grow up and realize there’s even more to be had than days of work and nights of romance. He wants a deeper relationship with the girl he’s with and wants to experience something beyond the horizon.

Darlington County was not where life was leading these boys. It was not the end of the line. It was just a step in their process of maturing and coming into their own. It was that thin line where choices can be made and lives can be lost or saved.

For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/DarlingtonCounty.html